The Woman in the Woods
by MidEvilLight1882
Summary: No one knows where she came from. No on knows who she's with. She appears to be a nobody. The few who know of her know her as a myth, The Woman in the Woods; a kind and lonely woman who runs beyond the trees and aids those who are aiding others. Some say she's a ghost but all will soon know that. . . Evil never escapes her trees.
1. Three Questions

"Put up your hands!" Rick yelled as he pulled his rifle on a group that was huddled by a small fire. "Stay where I can see you or I will shoot you." His drawl was southern thick as he and his group surrounded the petrified man, woman and small child.

The woman immediately began to cry as she hunched over the wailing toddler, the man scooting before them while armed with a sharp stick in a wavering hand. Daryl lowered his crossbow at the sight and looked toward Glenn who also lowered his weapon. Rick, on the other hand, kept his rifle still and pointed ready to fire.

"Please!" The woman yelled as she grasped the child closer to her body. "We don't have anything! Please leave us alone!" Quietly she wrapped her free arm around the man's torso and shook as the group of six circled around them.

"Lower your weapon and we will lower ours, deal?" Rick asked and with a nod the man laid his stick down while everyone else lowered their weapons. Rick shouldered his rifle and walked around the small group, eyes tracing over every possession they had. A fire was nicely lit, thick clothes shielded them from the chilled winds, and three large bottles of water were at their feet as well as an abundance of dried meat that sat warmed by the flames.

"Where do you come from?" Rick asked as he knelt before the quivering man, looking no older than his late twenties. His blue eyes held youth as well as fear.

"We're not from anywhere." He gulped as he wrapped his arms around the woman and smaller girl. "Our group was run off by another and we've been in the woods ever since."

"How long?"

"About three weeks if I could keep up." He reeled back from Rick's intense gaze. "Please, we really have nothing to give you."

Rick shook his head and completely pushed his rifle toward Daryl who grasped it and shouldered it, showing that Rick was no longer a threat.

"How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked the familiar question and stared the man dead in the eyes for an answer.

"What? Why are you aski-

"How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked again with a bite to his teeth and immediately the man closed his lips as thoughts whirled through his mind.

"A couple dozen give or take since this all happened." His voice was firm but his eyes showed his trepidation as this burly man gazed into his soul.

"How many people have you killed?" Rick could see this question take the man off guard as he tightened his hold on the two girls.

"Five." He said without wavering and his blue eyes met the equal blue eyes of Rick as he asked his final question. "Why?"

"Fear." He said simply. "I don't condone killing but the the five people that I killed were just as evil as the things in these woods. They tried to steal what little we had, tried to steal my wife as well as my daughter for whatever use they wanted." At this the man straightened and stared the entire group in the eyes.

"As a Father and husband, I was protecting my own."

Rick processed his answers before nodded toward his group and standing to his feet. He offered the most sincere of expressions he was still able to muster before placing his hands on his hips and looking down toward the small family.

"We have a community not far from here; shelter, food, walls if you would like to come with us and not be in these woods any longer." Rick nodded toward his wife and small daughter. "We could give you something to better protect your family if you so choose it."

The man turned his head and locked eyes with the hopeful ones of his wife before cradling his daughter's head in his large hand. A better life? This was too good to be true in a world like this. Here are these people coming from nowhere and pointing their guns at them and then offering shelter and a place in their community.

You just don't come by that anymore; there's no more kindness in the world. The man looked away from Rick and his blue eyes gazed beyond the trees, skimming for a movement and ears perked for sound but there was none.

There was still kindness in the world; it was running through these woods like a spirit. She left the food, the water and even started the fires for them when they were too chilled to move. A lonely woman who ran beyond the trees and protected them for the weeks they were in _her_ woods. She was the kindness that was still left in the world but now it seemed that there was more kindness to be offered and he could just hear her say, _go with them._

He nodded and grasped Ricks offered hand and he was pulled up by the taller man, giving it a shake. "My name is Devin and this is my wife Abigail and daughter Heidi." Devin pulled his chilled family up and held them close and gave one last look to the woods before turning his eyes to group. "If you have the room we will gladly go with you. I hope we will be of use in your community."

Rick nodded and released the man's hand. "I'm sure we can find you a job. Come on, our vehicles are not far from here." With that the group escorted their new family to their cars to begin the journey back toward The Alexandria Safe Zone, unbeknownst that they were followed by a pair of eyes that were peaking beyond from a tree with a small smile to their face as they disappeared into the darkness of the woods once more.


	2. Tree Bound

She had been watching them for a while now. Four men clad in denim and leather and armed to the teeth with assault rifles. Hazel eyes scanned their every move as they circled around the dying fire that she had stomped out some hours ago. Heads would look down toward the charred earth and then point their guns around them, looking for any sign of the small family that sat there some hours before.

"If they were here they've been gone for a while now." The largest of the group said as he shouldered his weapon with a sigh. "Every time we get close to catching them they fucking disappear into thin air."

"I'm tired of this shit! I'm sure they're gone and the dead walked the fire out, let's stick to that and head back." She recognized this one; Dwight was his name and was possibly the most unpredictable out of the lot. She watched as he circled the charred spot of earth and angrily kicked sand and leaves onto it with many mumbled curses.

Dark brown hair fell over her shoulder with the breeze and her long pointed nails scraped into the tree bark. She hated them. She hated them all and slowly she was bringing down their numbers, so slowly. She despised their hatred, hated their evil and did not agree with how they rule over one another.

They were animals that did not belong in her forest.

The smallest one, no more than seventeen years of age stood off with a shaky form as he pointed his gun this way and that around the trees, hoping to anticipate a dead walking out and not be caught off guard. He was new to the group, found not too long ago when The Saviors were patrolling a small town and after blindly pledging himself to the leader; this young boy was following in fear.

She could see his anxiety roll off of him a dark aura, his form threatening to shake off his skin as the older ones laughed and pushed him further into the trees; finding humor when he would scatter back and blindly point his weapon. It was cruel and she hated every second.

But she couldn't act, not now with the sun being so high and the shade so little. She never acted out during the day; the night was her best when she had the whole forest working with her. She always waited until then. For others the night brought paranoia and extra vigilance since the dead seem more active in the dark and in larger groups. This never stopped her and in fact the hordes are used to her advantage, she wanted all evil eradicated from her woods and only peace be known but with The Saviors, there is no peace.

"Come on guys." The youngest struggled out through shaking lips. "They are nowhere near here; they've had a head start for hours and could be anywhere. Let's go."

"Aw look the little boy is scared." Dwight mocked as he firmly grasped the back of his neck and kneaded it. "Scared of a few trees and a witch?" He asked and at the last word the boy perked up and his eyes grew.

"W. . .Witch?" He asked with tremble that made Dwight bellow out a laugh and the others were soon to follow.

"Yeah boy, a witch lives in these woods and she's much scarier than the dead that walk around here." Dwight locked eyes with the other members and all shared a thought. Quickly Dwight snatched the young boy's collar and hiked it upward, gagging the child as the largest of the group ripped his rifle away.

With sad eyes she watched as these brutes dragged the screaming boy toward a large tree and turned him around to where he was chest first to the trunk and his arms stretched around the bark like he were giving it the strongest hug. His screams and cries were echoing off the leaves and bounding through the forest and she just knew that the dead were to follow. She continued to watch as they tied his hands to the point they were purple and sliced away his heavy jacket and shirt, leaving him bare torso to the chilled world.

Oh how she hated them.

"Now boy." Dwight sighed as he slicked back his grey hair and shouldered the extra rifle. "What's your name again actually?"

"D. . . David." He sobbed out as he braced his cheek against the bark and attempted to snap the zip ties around his wrists but it was no use. He was stuck here.

"Ah yes David. Well David, I'm going to leave you here for the night and if I remember in the morning, I'll come back for ya and you can tell us all about the witch." He leaned in close to the crying teens face with a smirk. "If she or the dead ones don't come for ya first, tah tah!"

At that the group walked away bellowing in laughter as they left this child tied to a tree in the middle of the woods, bare and weak against the elements and with the true monsters that roamed through the leaves. Hazel eyes broke away from the wailing boy to look up toward the sky, seeing that there was only a few more hours left of daylight. Looking back toward the weeping form against the bark, she sighed and backed away from the tree she was hiding behind, purposefully snapping a twig; making the boy panic and struggle against the tree with loud begging cries.

" _I'll be back."_ She whispered upon the breeze as she pulled up her hood and briskly ran deeper into the forest to where her dwelling lay.

* * *

David's heart was beating so fast he was sure it was going to burst from his chest at any moment. The panic he felt was so high that he could barely feel the tearing of his wrists as he tried to once again break the zip ties, he pulled and tugged and even twisted in attempt to weaken them but it was no use. For hours he had tried and they still kept him bound to the tree.

The sun had begun to set some minutes ago and slowly the forest was sinking into darkness and as the shadows crept up to his feet, his fear and panic was rising. He knew that night was the most dangerous of these times; the dead were more active and seemed to be everywhere. With a strangled yell he tried to snap himself free but like the hours before, he was still stuck where he was and soon he was about to lose all hope.

In his mind he was picturing what this _witch_ looked like and with his panic fueling his imagination; it was not working in his favor. Like he were hallucinating, he pictured a hunched over old woman weaving in and out of the trees, laughing out loud like they told her the funniest joke. He shook and trembled as his weakened mind could see this horribly ugly woman taunting him to death and it was then he hoped his group would show up and take him home, apologizing for the cruel joke.

His group. . . His group had left him here without a second thought, his people. Granted he had only traveled with them for no more than a few months but he was close to feeling like he actually belonged. He's never had a group, it was just him and his mother when this all started and after losing her, he was alone until he came upon The Saviors and their initiation to join their group.

David slammed his head against the bark and yelled out in anguish as the forest fully dipped into darkness. He had killed an innocent person just to be a part of a group and they left him tied to a tree for amusement. He was a fool, a coward and a murderer and he was going to die tied to a tree.

With the forest drenched in black and the bugs chirping away, it was like his senses were on high alert. He could hear everything from a fly buzzing by to leaves falling and his skin pricked as the chill of the air froze his skin. Tears continuously fell from his eyes, never stopping once the Saviors left as he began to whisper a prayer to anyone who would listen.

He prayed for forgiveness of his sins, his blind faith and following and for anything else he could think of to be forgiven for. His fear had finally reached an all-time high since this apocalypse began and he wanted nothing more than his mother to appear and take him with her. He wanted his mother and he cried for his mother as his frozen arms became numb upon the bark.

A twig snapping broke his attention and his green eyes snapped open to see that nothing was near him but he could very well hear what the forest had to hide. He could hear the twigs breaking and the heavy breaths along with low moans that echoed upon the forest, showing that the dangers could be anywhere.

Lips quivered into a broken whimper he struggled against the tree as the twig snapping became louder and the moans less echoed, they were closer now and he could barely see over his shoulder for the danger. Maybe this was for the best? If he couldn't see a dead one coming upon him maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. With one last struggle he cried against the tree as the still air of the woods was broken with a few moans and heavy breaths.

David panicked and struggled to turn his head left and the right, green eyes seeing that there was nothing there but upon turning his head back to the left, his eyes caught a figure within the dark shadows of trees that was limbering toward him. A dead man wearing a tattered and decaying suit was ambling toward him with loud snarls and snapping jaws of jagged teeth.

His heart stilled at the sight and with his panic taking over, he struggled against the tree and screamed out toward the monster that was coming closer to him with each step. Snapping teeth were aimed toward him and broken fingers reached for his bare flesh and it was then that the crying teen realized he had nowhere to go. David let loose a scream that drowned out the dead's moans and tears fell faster as he watched the monster reach for his skin.

Once he felt the cold and jagged bone of the dead's fingers and see the open mouth of the rotting face barrel down toward his shoulder, a buzz from the air jolted him as the dead was tossed away toward the dirt, an arrow protruding from his temple and black fluid dripping upon the leaves.

His heart didn't have a chance to restart as he heaved air into his lungs, his throat constricting with sobs and his form shivering into the cold wind. _The thing was dead! There's an arrow in it skull!_ His mind screamed at him as he tried to look around but all he could see were trees and the shadows they cast; there was nothing else here.

Swiftly another whirr was heard upon the air and what followed was another sound of a body hitting the earth. Three more arrows buzzed through the air and the moans and breaths were gone, the silence had returned and the forest was stilled once more. David heaved his chest for breath and kept his right cheek pressed against the bark, green eyes scanning all that he could see from his position. After a few moments of paranoia filled silence, his green eyes focused on a flutter that was behind a tree.

"Hello?" He called out with a sob. "Is anyone still there? Please, please help me!" He cried as he struggled against his binds.

He was met with silence for only a moment and then his eyes focused on what appeared to be a figure stepping out from behind the trees. A tall figure cloaked in black with face obscured by a hood appeared with a bow tightly clasped in their hand. Green eyes watched as the figure weaved between the trees with a sway as they plucked away the arrows that were used to kill the monsters.

David felt his heart race as Dwight's words replayed in his mind. _"A witch lives in these woods."_ And his blood then turned to ice as he watched frozen in terror as the figure plucked the remaining arrows from the bodies hidden by the trees and turned gracefully toward him where the last monster with an arrow lay. Without a sound and moving like they were on air, the figure gracefully swayed toward David with arrows and a bow clasped in both hands. He could still not see their face due to the hood but it was no matter, he knew was about to die from fight at any moment.

"Please." He begged with a snotty sob and a lick to his blue lips. "Please I don't want to die." He cried as the figure was now only breath away and upon seeing them clad in all black with no peak of a face, he knew he was eye to eye with the Witch of the Forest.

"Please." He cried once more and closed his eyes as his body shook from the cold and impending pain but after a few moments nothing happened.

David opened his eyes to see that the cloaked and hooded figure was still standing there silently. They stared at one another for a moment more before the figure reached a delicate hand and pulled the hood down to reveal the Witch, not an ugly and deformed old woman but a young lady with wavy brunette hair and hazel eyes that lit up in the dark. Pink lips pulled into a smile which pulled a wave of relief through the young boy who now wept before the kind looking woman.

"Oh dear." Her voice was low but tinkled like a bell. "I have animals in my woods that are kinder than this." Gently she reached released the bow to the ground and wiped away the soaked hair from the boys brow and pressed her warm palm to his chilled skin. David relished in the feeling and continued to weep as the woman slid her hand from his cheek and stood before his bound wrists.

David let out a yelp and a cry as a snap echoed through the air and he found himself falling to the ground like a sack of flour, arms exhausted from hours of ill use but he has never felt so free. The woman walked around the tree to stare down at the panting and shivering boy before pulling a poncho from her side bag.

Pulling the boy to his feet, she draped the fleece fabric over his head and instantly he wrapped his arms in the poncho. She stood before him as she returned her arrows to her side quiver and draped the bow across her back before deciding to try something new.

"How many walkers have you killed?" She asked softly, remembering the questions that man had asked the day before, toward the shivering teen who looked up at her from his hunched state.

After processing that 'walkers' meant the dead ones, he immediately began to think of how many he had killed. He's killed many of those since this all started to keep him and his mother safe but he had to put a number to it? That seemed almost impossible for anyone these days.

"I don't know." He croaked out. "Too many."

She nodded and cocked her head to the side. "How many people have you killed?"

He gulped and lowered his head. "Just one."

She straightened up and crossed her arms before asking, "Why?"

David looked her in her hazel eyes but immediately looked down toward the ground and gulped a lump down his throat. "To be a part of the group who left me here." He mumbled and sniffed.

"It was an initiation that still haunts me."

She nodded solemnly and she could see the regret and sadness in his eyes that seemed so new in this world. She could tell that before joining the Saviors, he had it easy and seemed to survive just fine but whatever happened she doesn't know but he seemed he needed a chance.

Replacing her hood back over her head and fixing her cloak to where it covered her body, she turned and began to walk away; leaving David standing there shivering in the leaves next to the tree that nearly killed him. Turning back and nodding in the direction she was walking she called out to him.

"Follow me."


	3. A Living Myth

"Please." David begged as he stumbled behind the fast pacing woman. The tip of his numb booted foot caught a root that sent him stumbling, quickly catching himself with a curse before falling back into step. The woman slowed only a little, her hooded head turning slightly to see if he was keeping up before facing forward and trudged on.

"Please, where are you taking me?" He asked and pulled the fleece poncho tighter around his quivering shoulders. He was much warmer than when he was tied to the tree and he was thankful but his mind kept yelling at him to turn around and make it on his own. Why was he blindly following this woman? Who was she and why did she ask him those questions.

He contemplated returning to the Saviors, returning to his home of only a few months and tell them that he freed and saved himself, maybe then he would have the respect he so desperately yearned for. Would they believe him? Would they believe that a frail child like himself fended a night in a walker infested forest with no clothes or weapons? The more he thought about it the less he was inclined to do it.

He just wanted safety. He just wanted to sleep every night without worry just like he did before and after the outbreak happened. Before his mother died they had fended themselves well in an old country club outside of Richmond. They had food, plenty of water and enough space to create a small community which they never did. It was just him and his mother against this world and they thrived for the first few years.

It was when his mother was bitten on a supply run that the world showed David how ugly it had become. They never were outside longer than a day; they never encountered others surviving like themselves, the lived happily blind to the terror of the new world that when they finally experienced a sliver of it, it was too late.

He took his mother back home. He held her as she cried about the burning in her skin and cradled her as she slowly succumbed to the fever. It was less then hours later when David had to put down his own mother and he was all alone in the cruel new world. After her death, he needed to find someone to take her place, he was not fit to be in this world alone and when the first group of survivors found him on the road; he joined them even though it took an innocent life in the process.

"There's a safe place up ahead, a community that is good." He never noticed that she had a slight accent to her words until now. Her speech was slow and her words crisp with a roll to her tongue that was so faint you could miss it if you weren't focused on it.

"Why are you taking me there? Was it because of those questions you asked?" Jogging to catch up to the woman he stopped at her side and could only see the tip of her sharp nose through her beyond her hood.

"In a way yes, the answers you gave were genuine and I can see that you are not used being out here." Suddenly she stopped and even though he could not see her face clearly, he could feel the hard look she was giving him.

"Those men that you were with, the Saviors are no more beastly than the creatures in _MY_ forest and for you to associate with them I should have left you tied to that tree." David felt his heart stop at her words that were spit in his direction and it made him take a step back from her.

She sighed and straightened herself before speaking once more. "But I didn't. You begged them, you pleaded with them to not tie you to that tree and they _left_ you like a piece of trash to throw away. You are a boy, a young man who I can see does not know how this new world works and you chose to fend with the worst company you could have found." Lifting her head so he could see her whole yet shadowed face, he could see the true age of this young woman. To him she was young but her eyes screamed such wisdom that she was ancient.

"There are people out here who have not lost their sense of morality, you just happened upon the people who lost it too soon." With that she closed her pink lips into a tight line and turned to walk in the direction they were originally in but David had one more question that burned him with curiosity.

"How do you know the saviors? What did they do to you?"

"Boy you are crossing a line that is way too thin." She seethed and picked up her pace to where her cloak billowed wildly behind her.

"No please tell me." He pressed and jogged to her side. "Please tell me how bad the saviors are. I wasn't with them long so please; how bad are they?"

The woman sighed and slowed her pace as all the possible answers she could give them reeled through her mind but chose to keep it as short as she could. "I don't like evil in my forest."

David sighed and rubbed his tired face. This woman wasn't making any sense to him and to avoid his head from hurting worse he dropped the subject on the saviors. For someone who was so keen on helping him, she really showed the hatred she had for people and it boggled him to his core but before he could mentally explode, he asked one more question.

"They referred to you as a witch, why would they say something like that unless you really are one?"

"Why do they refer to themselves the Saviors when they are not saviors?" She fired back and her hazel eyes burned him through the shadow of her hood and it was then he finally sealed his lips. She had a connection to them in a shape or form and by her expressions of them, they were not good. Whatever they did to this woman must have left her so scarred that she only wanted the saviors to feel nothing but fear when they mention her.

And they did.

He was only with the Saviors for about two months before they tried to kill him, a member of their group that had pledged and initiated to show their loyalty. Although those two months he received the sleep at night he was used to, he could always hear their hushed tones and whispered secrets.

Some men would say about how there was a dead in the forest that could run faster than they, a dead they could never catch to kill but had killed them on multiple occasions. He remembered how five men would leave to go and collect and their 'offerings' and if they were lucky three would return with not even a quarter of their offerings. They would weave tales about a cloaked witch in the forest that would attack them with wild screams and shoot them with such sharp arrows that they would pierce through to the other side.

They would say how wild she was, how feral she was and how they could never catch her as she would instantly disappear behind trees and vanish like she was never there. One rumor through the group was that she could walk amongst the dead and not be attacked, like they were her own army at her command.

She was myth that the men would tell scary stories about but when groups would return with missing members, that myth was the only thing that truly frightened them and in truth it was just an ordinary woman who he followed behind. She never screamed wildly, she shot the dead with her sharp arrows to save his life and she never vanished. She protected him when neither he nor his group would.

She was an enigma in this new world that he couldn't figure out and truthfully he was to apprehensive to figure it out. He was just grateful she didn't leave or kill him.

"This is as far as I'm willing to take you." Suddenly she stopped, rooted to the ground like she were statue.

David panicked and looked up in her direction to see large, steel walls surrounding a great piece of land. The moon shined over the road before what seemed the entrance to the community, lined with dead cars and even dead on sharp medieval looking traps that were before the gates; snarling and snapping at the walls like they knew someone was beyond them.

Turning his head to the side to look beyond a wayward tree branch, David could see three people standing upon the gate with assault rifles aimed and drifting through the air like they were aimed at something in the distance and it was then he gulped.

"You expect me to waltz over there alone and be face to face wi-" David turned and saw that the woman was nowhere to be seen. The cloaked figure no longer standing like a still statue upon the forest floor, vanished so silently that he never knew she had gone; leaving him alone.

"With guns pointed at me." He whispered silently before turning and forcing himself to trudge toward the gate with a violent shiver to his body.

Hazel eyes watched from behind a large tree to see that David had finally turned and walked toward the gate, shivering from fear and anticipation. He needed this, he needed to be with a group that would help him grow and show him how to live in this world, lessons he would never have received with the Saviors.

Shrinking back further behind the tree a light had flashed brightly that startled her as well as David. She could hear them call out to him and asking who he was and David would answer, soon the gate had opened and she saw the same bearded man waltz out and pat the young boy before guiding him into the safe zone.

Yes, she knew that he would be fine . . . for now.


	4. They're called the Saviors

David sat quietly as Rick stared him down with such an intense gaze that it sent a shiver down his spine even though he was sitting in a warm house. Upon being accepted into the large community, David was apprehensive about the group's leader. The burly man had such an air of authority around him that it rivaled his former group leader; it was almost terrifying. Green eyes scanned the house that they were in, a large modern three story home that held original furniture, possibly from before the outbreak and he sighed in relief at the familiar feeling.

Rick eyed the young man and scratched his beard. How did this boy find their safe place without being brought to it by one of their own? They haven't had an outsider walk up to their gates in sometime and he was kicking himself at letting him in so easily. In truth he was just a frightened boy who wandered from the woods like an injured deer and Rick didn't have the heart to turn him back, no matter what hardships his group has faced.

"Are you sure you're not hungry? We have plenty of food to offer." His southern drawl stirred David from his thoughts and a light blush to his cheeks as his stomach growled at the mention of food.

"No sir." He mumbled and held the poncho tighter to his body. "I'm alright, I don't want to intrude."

Rick laughed at the boys answer and leaned back against the couch with his arms crossed. It was just the two of them in the home, the lone house being used as an interrogation place for new comers to the community. Since bringing David in, he had shown nothing but frightened politeness that it caused Rick to worry for the boy's mental stability. He had not mentioned where he came from or how he survived this long or what he possibly went through in his journey and Rick was damned sure to find out.

"Alright then but I need you to hear me out." He leaned forward and rested his elbows to his knees, grasping the boy's attention with the swift movement. "I don't know you and you don't know me; I get that but for the sake of _my_ people and _our_ homes, I need to know exactly where you came from and how you survived this long."

Rick leaned an inch closer, making David inch further back. "You also haven't answered my questions yet and I've let you sit quietly long enough." David swallowed a lump in his throat and sighed as he let his shoulders fall, waiting for Rick to ask the same questions once more.

"How many walkers have you killed?" Rick asked with a clench to his teeth as he laced his fingers together and focused on the boy.

"Too many to count." David sighed and straightened up before the imposing figure before him.

"It's hard to keep up with now-a-days." Green eyes found blue and watched as Rick nodded in understanding to his answer. It was true, it was hard to keep a number on killing the dead; just so damn hard now.

"I get that." Rick agreed and eyed the boy once more. "How many _people_ have you killed?"

David treaded this question. Even when _she_ asked them he didn't want to answer it, he wanted to forget that piece of his life, the piece where he tore apart an innocent survivor just so the Saviors could welcome him into their group. It was a piece of his history that he had to live with and it ate him from the inside out.

"Just one." He mumbled and fingered a bit a thread at the end of his poncho. "Just only one."

Rick saw something flash in his green eyes and his eyebrow rose with his next question.

"Why?"

David closed his eyes as flashes of memories lit up his mind of that poor old man's screams and cries for mercy as he hacked him away into nothing. Hacking the poor old soul with his own eyes closed in hopes of blocking out the image of his shredding body but it was of no use, it was burned into him just as the laughing of the Saviors who watched was burned into him.

"To be a part of a group that found me in Richmond." David swallowed another lump as he locked eyes with the bearded man. "It was an initiation to be in the group, to be accepted and all I wanted was to be accepted but it haunts me to this day."

Rick leaned away from David as the boy dropped his eyes and held the cloth closer to his now shivering body, processing what he was just told. He didn't like that answer, not one bit but to see someone show remorse in this day and age and to also to it was refreshing would be insulting to the life he took; to be a part of a group? This world was getting more barbaric by the second.

Rick sighed and wiped his face. "I don't like that answer." Looking toward the boy who now held his head down and shoulder still, he groaned and leaned back into the couch. "I don't like that one bit, was it an innocent?"

David nodded. "An older man who was looking for sanctuary after losing his group to a herd, my group picked him out for me on a run; said he would be an easy kill and gave me an axe." David lowered his head and covered his tear stained face with his palms, squeezing his forehead in hopes of pushing the memories away.

"Please, don't make me talk about it anymore." His voice broke which caught Rick's attention.

"I have nightmares about it every day." David raised his green eyes to lock onto the hard blues of Rick. "If you don't want me here I understand but please, I can't survive out there on my own."

This wasn't the first time he's begged for his life but this was the first time he begged before someone who wasn't laughing at his weakness. When he begged to be among the Saviors, he was laughed at and pushed around before they accepted him to do the initiation which he now believes was for their own amusement, to be entertained as a teenager bludgeoned an innocent man to death. David closed his eyes and sighed, clearing his head before looking up to Rick who still had a thoughtful look to his face.

But this man, he may look just as rugged as the saviors, so hardened by this new world but he seemed so much more human. _There are people who have not lost their sense of morality._ Her words rang through his mind and it was then he saw that Rick Grimes was the embodiment of those words, his whole group was and David was now ashamed for not finding them sooner.

"Can I tell you something, Mr. Grimes?" David asked, shocking Rick from his thoughts at the polite questions.

Rick dropped his hand from his chin and relaxed his position in front of the boy. "Of course you can."

David cleared his throat and focused on the black fleece poncho he still wore. "I was asked those questions before, the ones you asked me about why I killed the monsters and people; I was asked those same ones before I was brought here."

That grabbed Rick's attention almost immediately. "You were brought here? By who?" He didn't mean it but his words came out defensive and almost panicked that it startled David into choosing his words better.

"I uh I just meant that someone else asked me those questions too; like she wanted to ask me them first before she lead me here." David stumbled and licked his lips. "Like, she wanted to deem me worthy of being a part of your group."

"And who is this _she_?" Rick bit out as he eyed the window where Daryl had stood diligently the entire time he was talking with the young boy but his words were sparking recognition with the sheriff and he wanted to see if his matched someone else's.

David shrugged. "I honestly don't know, I was wondering if you knew since she asked me your questions." David saw that Rick had no idea what he was talking about so he continued.

"My group left me tied to a tree for a laugh, saying that there was a _witch_ in the forest and after the night fell, she saved my life against the walkers as you call them." Rick cocked his head at the tale the boy was telling him but decided to let him continue.

"She saved me and asked me those questions, at the time I thought she was insane but I answered with the same way I asnwered you and she just brought me here." David twiddled with a frayed hole in his jeans before locking eyes with Rick.

Rick rubbed his face and sighed. "And why do you think this woman would bring you here?"

David sighed. "A second chance after I told her everything. I suppose she could see that I could not brave this world on my own, she must have seen you before to know what to ask." He smiled and played with the poncho once more.

"She saved my life and gave me another chance to do right in this new world." Green eyes locked with blue. "So I'm begging you, please give me a chance like she did."

Rick processed what the boy had said throughout their conversation and he knew that if he did throw him outside the gate, he would likely not survive the night and the time the woman put into saving him would be wasted. That woman . . . it was the second time he had heard about her, the lady who ran in the woods with the walkers.

The family he had saved the day before, the ones he found in that same forest spoke about a lonely woman who protected them and fed them while they were in her woods for weeks. Devin had said that she would appear when his daughter would cry, either from food or the cold it didn't matter, she would slink from behind the trees and hold food out to them until they took it like startled animals.

They could never see her face as it was always obscured by the hooded cloak but they didn't need to see her face as they felt her kindness. Rick was mostly interested in the group that had followed them, the group that had killed their own and sent the small family scrambling into the woods in the first place. Devin said it was like she knew when they would be close, darting from tree to tree and taking what little they had and scurrying further into the forest; forcing them to follow and ultimately not being detected by the searchers.

That had went on for weeks before Rick and his group found them.

Rick thought it was absolutely amazing how one person could do this and now knowing that this boy had also been in her company, the thoughts of trying to find her were all he could think about. If he could get her to be a part of the safe zone, they would have another mean of protection.

But Rick had one more question and he just hoped that David would give another answer than to what he was thinking of. He prayed even.

"I have one more question before I show you where you will be sleeping." Rick started and grasped the boy's attention once more. "What was the name of the group you were with?"

"They're called the Saviors." David mumbled and he stiffened when Rick inhaled sharply through his nose.


	5. You Don't Know What She Can Do

She watched as Rick led David into the safe zone, ducking away further as the others, who were holding rifles, scanned the area before backing into the gate. Hazel eyes jolted with a blink as the gate was slammed shut, closing off her woods to the people beyond the walls. She had done what she needed to do, she had done what she felt was right; she just hoped that she made the right decision of bringing him there; a former savior no matter how long he was with them .

He had begged to stay with her after saving him, unbinding him from his fate tied to the tree but it was something she never could have done. She was meant to be alone, she was meant to die in this world alone and that was how she preferred it. She accepted the name of 'ghost' and would live like she was one; a living ghost in a world where the dead walked.

With a sigh she pulled her black hood further upon her head, the thick fabric waving down her face and disappearing into a pool of material that made up her heavy cloak. Softly tanned fingers gripped the hood as she stood there, watching as the guards paced the top of the gate before slinking back behind the trees to make her way home.

Booted feet hit the leaves damn near silently as she weaved around the tree trunks and stepped over the fallen logs. She knew this forest better than she knew herself, she knew where to put her toes to emit no sound and could billow around the twigs like she were skating on the air. These were _her_ woods, _her_ domain and _her_ sanctuary. All of it was hers and it would stay hers but like everything in this world, it never used to belong to her.

Pulling her cloak tighter around her chilled shoulders, the woman picked up her pace upon the leaves as the onslaught of memories began to flood her vision; her mother, her sister and father, all together once upon a time during the making of the new world. She hated when it happened but she was sure that it happened to everyone now and again, remembering how everything used to be and how everyone used to have different lives of normalcy.

Sharp clawed nails scratched against her skin, hoping to end the recurring thoughts but it was soon a groan that pulled her mind completely to the present. The woman stopped her feet to a halt upon the ground as she released her arms and let her cloak billow around her like black mist at her feet. She could hear them so closely, the groans and moans of the dead the inhabited her forest like the rest of the world. Hazel eyes swiveled this way and that but soon she raised her fingers to pull the hood down to her shoulders, giving her a wider range of vision.

Quickly her sight fell onto a female walker, a woman frozen in time to the exact moment she died and became one of her forests beast. She once had what looked like blond hair that fell to her waist and she was wearing a dress that seemed to be of business quality with a pencil skirt, blouse and blazer; all torn and stained to where they looked like molded rags upon her decaying flesh.

She stood there and watched as the walker stumbled around with her nose to the air, sniffing sharply and teeth clacking together like she was tracking. Her feet, one bare and the other wearing one heel, fumbled through the dirt and leaves, kicking up sound that seemed so loud in her silent forest.

Her mind told her to put her down immediately, once being told that even though they were dead and walking, they were still people that didn't know what was happening to them. They were just sick people that had no control over their bodies and in absolute pain with no control of what their body wanted.

It was heartbreaking once you gave it some thought. . .

But. . .

It was absolute bullshit.

The woman quietly turned to the side as the walker stumbled right past her with her nose almost directly on her cloaked shoulder. She watched as the walker clacked her teeth and cracked her jaw before sharply turning to the right and finding a new path to possible food.

The woman sighed and calmed her racing heart as she pulled her hood back up over her head to continue to her home. She encountered dozens of walkers a day, often times surrounded by them and still when they get to closer to her she always anticipates a bite she knows will never come; it always still sent her heart into a panic.

The people of the new world, no matter the circumstance, were all terrifying and to be up close and personal with one; it would send ice down your body so quick you were immediately frozen. Not her, not anymore. She saw those things as an item of offense toward those who were a threat. Weapons able to be used to protect oneself from those who only know how to cause fear and harm now; those who have forgotten who they were before the world died.

Sighing and shaking her head, the woman reached for her hood once more and brought it up upon her head and continued onward to her home that from her distance, she could see it beyond a few yards of trees. Picking up her pace and falling into a light jog, hazel eyes scanned the area for any other beings, dead or alive, that could possibly be around with wandering eyes.

Deeming that it was relatively safe and no other eyes were following her, she skidded to halt upon the leaves with her cloak billowing around wildly as she leaned forward and grasped a metal ring that was obscured by the fallen leaves. With a heave and a creak from the rusty metal hinges, she raised the door to the underground and with a swell of the loose fabric of her cloak; the woman disappeared like the ground swallowed her whole with the door slamming shut and becoming invisible upon the foliage covered ground.

* * *

"The 'Witch in the woods'?" Rick asked as he stared down Devin with squinting eyes, not believing what the young man was saying. His wife, Abigail and daughter Heidi, were sitting with him upon the large couch an extra house had to offer; all huddled together while they ate the food that was provided.

Devin nodded as he chewed slowly upon the dried jerky meat. "That's what _they_ called her while we were with them." He swallowed his food and looked up to with equal blue eyes. "They spoke of her like she were a story, a legend of some sorts like they were creating new myths among their civilization to scare their people but it wasn't us that it frightened."

Rick cocked his head as Devin took a breath. "She frightened them, she frightened the saviors to the point they were too paranoid about going out to receive offerings."

Rick scoffed and crossed his arms. "Why would a group of tough and dangerous men be afraid of a woman running in the woods? That makes no sense to me."

Devin shuddered and Abigail brought their daughter closer into her embrace. "You haven't seen her, Rick. You haven't seen exactly what she can do and for her to act alone, she is frightening."

Darly snuck a glance toward Rick as he processed what these people were saying. A groupd of murderers were afraid of a lonely woman? A sprite that runs in the woods and saves people? He has yet to hear anything like it. He's seen personally how people have changed in this new way of life, some for worst in their experiences but the others always acted in large communities and groups; never alone.

"And what exactly could she do that was so frightening?" Rick asked as he switched the position of his crossed arms, eyeing Devin as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

"We've never seen her kill anything but we have heard it, the screams of the men who were hunting us, the begging and sound of flesh ripping apart. We often heard the sounds of the dead, the walkers that inhabited the forest but we never saw any, not one while we were in there." Devin inhaled and looked up toward Rick and Daryl.

"It was like she could command them or put them where she needed them to be. I. . . I just can't explain it." Devin leaned back against the couch as memories from the weeks in the woods flooded his vision and it was then he saw how surreal the whole ordeal was.

"You're bullshitting." Daryl grumbled as he rolled his shoulders. "If this is some trick for us into believing your little tale to drop our guard, so help me I will.-"

"Enough Daryl." Rick shot out and raised his hands. "We don't know what to believe but if we are to believe what they and David have told us." He swallowed a lump in his throat as he eyed the little family.

"Then we need her here, with us and fighting for us." Once those words left his mouth, Abigail shook her head as she smoothed out Heidi's damp curls.

"That won't work. She wants to be alone; she belongs to no group and only helps until those who she is helping are fine to be on their way, out of her forest." Green eyes fell onto the burly men as her mouth trembled slightly.

"She belongs in the woods, the forest is hers and quoting what she herself told us, _She doesn't like evil in her forest."_

Daryl scoffed and eyed the woman with a glare. "You act like we're about to go in there and take a wild animal from their natural habitat to be a pet when we are speaking of a _human_ who has an upper hand on the saviors that we need!"

"But you will be taking someone from their home to be used like a weapon to benefit yourself!" Abigail yelled as she covered Heidi's ears. "She owes you nothing! She owes us nothing, she didn't have to help us but she saw that we needed it!" Her voice softened as her green eyes fell onto Devin and she grasped his hands.

"She didn't have to save us, protect us those weeks we were in those woods running form the saviors but she did it anyway and she saved that boy that was brought in tonight that she didn't have to help but did.

You have no right to force her to help you, force her fight for you like a one person army against the enemy you created against yourself. I can't speak for her, I don't know her but I know she helps those that can't help themselves; those that need to be saved." Abigail inhaled a breath after her rant and watched as Daryl and Rick stood in a stoic silence before Devin piped up in hopes of ending the arguing.

"She helps those that can't help themselves." He whispered, mimicking what his wife had said and now it sounded like a twisted riddle about a character in a fable.

Daryl growled as a migraine began to assault his head. "So if the saviors roll up to our gates ready to attack us, she'll pop out on a fucking white horse and kill them all for us? That sounds highly likely." the sarcasm that dipped in his voice made Rick sigh as he looked from his right hand man toward the family that sat before him, speechless from all that has been shared.

"It could be likely." Abigail sighed. "From what we have seen she has a vendetta against the Saviors but we don't know why and if you want to know so bad then hunt her down yourself and talk to her."

At that thought Rick sighed and rubbed his stubbled face.

If he had to hunt her down then so be it, he would find her talk with her and soon this mess with Saviors will be over.

All he could do was hope now.


	6. What We are Dealing With

"So you're the ones who killed everyone at the satellite tower and Paula's group?" David asked in mild awe as the shock shot through his system at the news he had heard. He was assigned to that satellite tower, he stayed there a majority of the time he was with the saviors and had left to go back to the main compound just two days before they found everyone murdered the finding Paula and her group a day later. David lifted his green eyes to stare at the men before him and it hit him that if he was at that tower, he would have been killed without a second glance or thought.

These people were monsters.

Rick nodded and crossed his arms as the boy's sudden demeanor change affected him little. He was never affected by how people tended to change attitudes with him, not anymore, so seeing the flash of anger then immediate fear sent a familiar spark of superiority through him.

"And we will do it again." He drawled as he leaned at the waist to look David right in the eyes where he sat. "When you tell us how many there are of you, where you all are and where this _woman_ is." He spoke through his teeth, making David force his eyes to his crossed feet and twiddle his fingers together in the poncho he still wore.

"If I don't tell you?" David mumbled in an attempt to show bravery.

"Then we either lock you away until you can be trusted or kill you, it all depends on you." Rick was tired of talking in circles with everyone. The family of three spoke nothing but riddles concerning the woman in the woods and now David was trying now of all times to show how brave he thinks he is.

Rick was tired and wanted to get everything sorted out and back to normal.

David sighed and locked his eyes onto the foreboding figure and leaned back into the sofa. He wanted safety; he wanted peace and a place to sleep every night. That was all he wanted and all he survived for, he couldn't fight nor shoot a gun so what could he be in this new world? A figure that lurks in the background and obeys whatever community duties are asked of him. Because of that, he was able to sleep comfortably every night and he wasn't about to loose that now. All he wanted was peace.

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know." He said with his gazing over Rick and the silent Daryl, who huffed and uncrossed his arms to wave them at the teen.

"Well that didn't take much to get information out of you." Heated blue eyes turned to Rick.

"How can we keep or trust someone who will give out anything someone wants to hear so they don't have to suffer? God forbid he ever leaves this place and finds his way back to the Saviors." Daryl spat toward the boy who immediately lowered his head and sent his fingers back to fiddling with the poncho strings that were loosened.

Rick pondered what Daryl had said and it something to think about. If this boy ever happened to find his way back to the Saviors, he could tell them every last detail to their community and it was bring them crashing to the dirt like Troy.

For now, this boy wasn't to be trusted.

"Daryl has a point." Rick mumbled as he pulled the coffee table toward the couch and took a seat right before the trembling teen. "I can't let you leave now, not until we get every last bit of information out of you about your group."

David sighed and locked his eyes onto Rick once more, exasperated already from the conversation. "I can promise you, I can never go back to the saviors, not even if I wanted to, not after what they did." He sighed and managed a small smile. "Besides, she saved me and brought me here, I was given a second chance by her and I don't want to ruin it."

Rick sighed and rubbed his face at the mention of the woman. "We'll talk about her later and though I am glad to hear that, I need to know where the saviors are and how many of them I need to kill."

David straitened his posture and ceased the twiddling on his poncho to give Rick and Daryl his full attention. "I wasn't with them long but from what I saw, the Saviors are a massive group, a community that dwarfs yours four times over." He swallowed at the paling of the faces in the room but he continued. "I've only seen the compound that you took down and the main building where a majority of the group lives, a large factory like warehouse maybe about forty-five miles from here."

"They're that close?" Rick bit out as he overcame his shock.

"Yeah but we've never been this far out, only when the family they were hunting escaped and were running in the woods did we come this close and even then when I was saved and brought here, we walked for about two hours before we reached your walls." David swallowed a breath.

"I doubt that at the moment, they don't know where this place is and I'm sure Negan doesn't now of it yet."

Rick glared at the boy before leaning forward and was almost nose to nose with him. "There is no Negan, I killed that bald son of a bitch"

David cocked his head and then shook it. "That wasn't Negan, Rick. Negan hardly ever leaves the main compound, only leaving when a situation calls for him to be there." He sighed at the shocked and panicked expressions of the two men.

"If he did say that he was Negan, he was doing it to protect Negan. He is very much alive and because of what your group did, this won't fly and you will be hunted."

"How do we know you're not fucking with us, huh!?" Daryl hollered and stomped toward the boy who recoiled into the couch.

"I'm not I swear! Something like what you did will bring retaliation and I'm sorry but the group is too large and there are just so many people." David raised his hands in a pleading notion toward the two men. "I've seen it, I've seen them tear apart groups that dare fight back against him and it just doesn't work." He swallowed thickly. "So please, for the better of you and your people, just obey Negan; I don't want to see anyone else die."

"You don't want to see anyone else die." Rick mocked as he stood from the coffee table to pace around the room and a fuming Daryl. "Now we just have more reason to kill him and end all of this and you're going to help us."

"I can't shoot a gun, I can't fight nor take down a walker on my own." David sighed as he held his head in hands as a migraine flared up. "It's no use and it is pointless to go against him."

"Well you have to know something!?" Daryl growled as he picked up the pacing when Rick came to a stop as his mind began to wander of the new threat. "We have an upper hand at least with you, what weakness does this Negan have?"

David moaned which soon turned into a small laugh. "Negan is possibly the only person who isn't scared of anything." As soon as that sentence left his mouth David shot up like a lightbulb had exploded above his head, forcing Daryl to cease his pacing and capture Rick's full attention.

There was one thing and only one thing that got under Negan's skin to the point of fear and he was kicking himself by not saying it sooner. If he wanted this group to trust him and accept him as one of their own, he was going to need some outside help.

"What is it?" Rick asked with a spark of annoyance at the teen's sudden odd behavior

"Her." He mumbled and locked his gaze on the two men. "He's terrified of _her_."


	7. The Day of Reckoning Pt 1

"Anything?" Rick called out as he held the pistol steady toward the trees, scanning the area slowly with focused eyes.

"Nothing" Daryl grumbled and shouldered his crossbow before stalking back toward Rick. They had been out in these damn woods every day at sundown for several weeks looking for any sign of that woman that supposedly lives in them. Both men met back up in one of the many clearing surrounded by trees and just stood there in frustration as the darkness swirled around them and mist rolled through like a bad horror movie.

"This is a total waste of time Rick and you know it." Daryl huffed and gave up scanning the area and just stood there waiting impatiently for Rick to come to his senses on how stupid this situation was.

"You know it's not." He started. "Those people didn't know each other so how the hell could they talk about the same damn woman? You have got to see that that cannot just happen now days." Rick turned around and trudged deeper into the forest with his gun lowered to his side in hopes of looking as 'non-threatening as possible'.

"She's out here and we need her help now come on." Daryl groaned but followed after his friend whilst snatching his cross bow from his shoulder.

Unbeknownst to them that up in a tree that over looked their every move, a sharp tipped arrow followed their every waver and breath. Hazel eyes with anger knitted brows watched as they marched deeper within her tree and it was when they disappeared did she release the tension on her bow. With a deep breath through her nose the woman calmed her nerves before placing her arrow back in its quiver and bow back upon her back.

She was getting annoyed with those two! For forty-nine damn days they have been coming into her woods, poking their noses around, killing her beasts and taking her animals all the while looking for her? What the hell did they want her for? With a disgruntled sigh she pinched the bridge of her nose as hard as she could handle.

She never should have taken that brat to them; she should have just left him there or killed him herself! Releasing her nose and sliding her hand to hold her mouth and chin in thought, she tapped the tip of her nose with her index finger. He must have told them about her about how she saved him and possibly where he came from. Those two men weren't much of talkers from her watching them the only thing they would say every so often the few hours they were in her forest was that they _needed_ her and _needed_ to find her.

Needed her for what?

Slamming both hands to the thick branch she was crouch upon the woman braced herself as she swung her lower body backward, legs swinging to catch another branch about two feet down before swinging off of that one to land on her feet a bit harsher than she would have liked. Shaking her shoulders that were aching from her bow use she slinked beyond the trees and followed the two men that still crept deeper into _her_ home. With her hood pulled tight over her head and fabric rippled to conceal her face, she used the darkness of her cloak to blend herself into the black of the forest as she paced herself closer to the men; who were now talking amongst each other more so than they have before.

"Rick what is she refuses to help us? Like they said, we can't force her we don't roll like that." Daryl mumbled as he shot to the left with his bow up and ready when a twig snapped in the distance.

Rick sighed. "We have to try. We don't know if she'll refuse or not besides it worth a shot I mean." He spun around with arms out in emphasis of the vast woodlands around them "She survives here alone in a forest crawling with walkers; you have to say that is impressive after what our _group_ has been through."

That caught her attention and silently she poked her cloaked head from behind a tree that was maybe six yards away from the men. Ducking away from her tree and gliding to another when they began walking once more, they spun when they heard a twig snap under her booted foot and she had to bring herself not to smirk.

She had no intention of coming to them when they called but she would enjoy fucking with them while she could.

"How do we know she's not somewhere near us right now?" Daryl mumbled with his crossbow aimed right at the tree where she was hiding.

Bingo.

"She could very well be anywhere, in front or behind us, we're on her turf."

Double bingo.

Rick sighed and looked up at the sky as it began to lighten to very soft purple. Had they really been out here that long? Each night was getting shorter and shorter every time they had no contact with her and he was starting to lose hope. Maybe it was for the best to leave her alone. Shaking his head and checking the rounds he had left in his pistol, he would try just one more time and he'll come in here yelling if that's what it would take.

"We better head back." Rick yawned and shook his shoulders. "We'll try again tonight." Upon the look that Daryl had thrown him Rick locked his gaze on the hunter.

"We'll try just one more time, I promise." With that the two men mad their trek back toward the safe zone all the while followed closely by the very person they were hunting.

* * *

A/N: Next chapter will be a time jump to a very crucial moment in Walking Dead because I need to hurry and get that out of the way. I intended this to start during season 7 and now that the season is over, I'm ready to start so be prepared!


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